Dear Editor,
There’s a myth making the rounds in this pre-election season — and being boosted by at least some on council who voted to green-light TC Energy’s pumped storage proposal back in February 2023. The myth is that Meaford has virtually no say about the project because it would be on federal Defence Department land and all decisions will be made by senior governments.
This is to ignore the fact that that land is within the municipality of Meaford so, of course, the municipality has an obligation to take a position. It also ignores the legislative reality: Ontario’s Green Energy Repeal Act of 2018. In the words of former Energy Minister Todd Smith, who fought for that act: “Municipal council support is required for the approval of (new-build energy) projects on sites that are within their boundaries.”
Thus, Meaford’s council indeed had virtually total power over whether the project could proceed or not. And it was led by a mayor who had just won office by campaigning against the project. As is well-known, he changed his tune after hearing from Mr. Smith and TC Energy officials and, when Council met in February 2023 in a packed Meaford Hall, it heard the project’s then head, John Mikkelsen, threaten that, unless it gave approval that day there would be no municipal benefits.
Council had all the power to stop the project but it bowed to the pressure and the prospect of unstated financial rewards. TC Energy got the willing-host vote that it not only wanted but needed. That vote may have been conditional on an environmental assessment, which was recently handed to the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada, currently reviewing the project. However, the role of the IAAC is not to approve or stop projects; rather it is to make sure they are carried out in the least harmful fashion.
Meanwhile, with the confidence of that vote and $285 million of Ontario taxpayer funds, the company has been drilling offshore for the second year and both it and its local representative refuse to release any of the many engineering and environmental studies already carried out.
Nothing will affect Meaford and the surrounding region as much as this project — for generations. But one councillor, about to be acclaimed as deputy mayor, was so defensive he actually analysed and calculated the time council has spent in four years on this project (“roughly 10 per cent or less”) — as though to demonstrate it isn’t really that important after all. And one candidate for mayor has told at least two constituents that she is waiting for the IAAC assessment before making her own decision. In fact, she voted “yes” three years ago on the willing-host motion and has essentially been TC Energy’s champion and chief defender on council ever since.
A new council could entertain a motion to revoke that willing-host approval of 2023 — an easily justifiable position given that the outgoing council had little information about the project at the time.
A footnote: A recent letter in the Independent cast doubt on a cost estimate of $10 billion for the project. But on July 27, council was informed that the cost would be $9.8 billion. That’s close enough to $10 billion for a project first pitched to governments in 2018 with a $2.2 billion price tag – and which has been twice ruled uneconomic by Ontario’s Independent Electricity System Operator.
Clair Balfour, Meaford
